Page 9 of Faithful

My mother is on the threshold, blocking him from entering.

“What the hell?” I walk over, my fingers bunching into fists, my pulse racing.

“You’re not taking any of her things!” my mother yells, ignoring me.

“That’s enough hysterics, Eleanor!” Gavin attempts to physically remove her from the doorway.

That does me in.

My voice comes out in the form of a massive roar. “Don’t fucking touch her!” I jump forward and push him with everything I’ve got.

He stumbles, his wild eyes zeroing in on me.

“Don’t fucking touch her!” I hear myself repeating, my blood hammering in my ears.

The next thing I know my mother is sobbing like a three-year-old whose toy just got confiscated. Tears are rolling down her sunken cheeks in earnest. I don’t even remember her crying so hard when we buried my sister.

My father rights himself and is yelling obscenities–the kind I never thought I’d hear from him. All those hateful words directed at me along with his blows.

This is the first time he hits me in front of my mother and his two hundred and sixty pounds against my hundred and eighty is an undeniable advantage.

I feel myself falling backward from the impact of his massive hand against my face and tumble to the floor right there in the hallway next to Ava’s room. The pain doesn’t come right away. Perhaps because shock comes first. My mouth tastes all wrong. Coppery. Black dots my vision, and I’m feeling so heavy that moving a limb seems like a task I’ll never achieve.

“Look at you,” Gavin says with a snarl. “Cowering like a little girl, good-for-nothing, degenerate. No wonder you can’t get it up with a woman.”

I’m only partially present because my brain finally catches up with my body and the agony crashes at me with such force, I'm convinced my father split my skull apart. But his insults still register, and I’m seventeen again, without a clue, naked and scared and trapped in a circle of fear, and the thought of never being able to get out of this circle pushes me to open my mouth and speak.

“Yeah?” I mumble through the pain. “Maybe it runs in the family. Maybe you can’t get it up either. You’re the one sleeping in a separate bedroom! 'Cause I’m always down to fuck, Dad!”

Gavin’s face reddens.

From my vantage point on the floor, I can see his hand forming a fist again.

“Come on, fucking hit me, you pig!” I cry out.

“Stop this…” My mother staggers into the middle of the hallway, into the empty space between us. “Stop this, you two. You’re going to wake up Ava.”

Gavin’s gaze slides from her to me and back. Then he turns around and marches away.

And that’s when I realize that the strange taste in my mouth is blood.

* * *

I wake up to five missed calls and three voicemails from work and a text from Kai. My head hurts like a motherfucker and a trip to the bathroom only confirms what I already knew all along. My face is way too messed up for me to risk it by showing up at the office and hoping theI walked into a doorexcuse will fly.

It most definitely won’t because doors don’t leave bruises this big and ugly.

People do.

Once I clean myself up a little and take another ibuprofen, I call Gin’s cell.

“Dylan?” She sounds surprised. “We’ve been trying to get a hold of you all morning. Is everything alright?”

“Ummm… not really. I’m sorry… I can’t come to the office today… or tomorrow. It’ll be just a few days. I can work from home, though… if you want.”

“What’s going on, kid?”

The sincerity and worry in her voice almost make me spill the beans, but then I remember how Gavin had Hayden disappeared. I still don’t know what happened to him. I tried to look him up on social media several times throughout the years with no results. I don’t want Gin to disappear too, so I tell her only what I think is enough for her to understand and stop asking questions. For all I know, Glasses could be screening my calls or worse… My phone could be bugged. I wouldn’t put anything past that slimy scumbag pretending to be a hotshot legal adviser. The thought gives me goosebumps… Because if that’s the case, my conversations with Kai… Oh fuck.

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